Old Fort Laramie was established over a hundred years ago at the junction
of the Laramie and north Platte rivers, and upon looking at our modern
maps of today one finds it in Goshen county, Wyoming, about twenty miles
west of the present city of Torrington, Wyoming.

About 1816 a French fur trader and trapper by the name of Jaques La
Ramine, came into this district with several companions and erected a small
log cabin on the narrow strip of land between the two rivers. Here La Ramie,
continued to reside and trap on the streams that headed in the Rocky Mountains
to the westward until some time in 1820 when he was killed by hostile Indians
in the vicinity of La Ramine Peak, a mountain which now bears his name.
After the passing of La Ramine, other free trappers and traders continued
to meet annually at La Ramine's old cabin until about 1834, when it is
said that William Sublette and Robert Campbell, arrived with some followers
and erected a square stockade near La Ramine's old post and named it Fort
William, in honor of William Sublette.

In 1835 Sublette and Campbell sold the stockade to Jim Bridger, Milton
Sublette and three others, who in the same year sold a part interest to
the American Fur Company. Early in 1836 it was found that the log stockade
was in need of extensive repairs so the American Fur Company hired some
Mexican trappers from the Santa Fe district to erect an adobe fort at a
cost of $10,000, and which was named Fort John, and was occupied by them
until 1849 in which year they sold it to the United States Government for
$4,000.

Several years prior to the purchase of this old Fort by the United States
Government, it seems that the name of Fort Laramie, attached itself to
the place, owing to the fact that there were several Fort Johns on the
far western frontiers and the shipping clerks and freighters around St.
Louis, Missouri, had been marking goods consigned to this place, "Fort
on the Laramie river" or Fort La Ramie," consequently Fort Laramie came
into use. Several other trading posts and forts sprang up in the vicinity
of Fort Laramie but their existences were of short duration.

Soon after the purchase of Fort Laramie by the U.S. Government, troops
came and it was established as a Military post to protect the travelers
going over the old Oregon and California trails. Many buildings were erected
by the army engineers, and among the first were the old guard house and
the Officers' Club, the latter became known as "Old Bedlam," and these
with many others still are standing.

Old Fort Laramie has witnessed many tragedies and much suffering, and
the futures of many persons were entirely changed through some small event
which transpired while they were stopped at the old post. Thousands of
emigrants bound for Oregon and California paused to rest and replenish
their exhausted supplies. The Mormons crossed from the north side of the
Platte river and followed the Oregon trail westward from this outpost.
Many Indian tribes camped near the fort, and many treaties were made within
the grounds of the fort, the first Pony Express rider from the east dashed
across the Laramie river and into Fort Laramie, there to be relieved by
another rider with a fresh horse from the Pony Express station which had
been established there. Edward Creighton, brought the wires of the first
Transcontinental Telegraph Line into Fort Laramie and established a telegraph
office in one of the old buildings long after the first wagons to go over
the old Oregon had passed that way. Many Military Expeditions, made this
old post their headquarters. Scientific men, authors and prominent hunters
came and went, and old Fort Laramie became nationally if not universally
known. The old fort has witnessed many social events and romances started
there, while only a few rods away is the old cemetery with its extreme
air of peace and solitude, and sleeping within it one finds the graves
of and loving pioneer mothers, fearless fathers, little children, soldiers,
teamsters, old trappers and many others, some of them marked by old fashioned
markers, but many rest in unmarked graves and their identity gone for ever.

In 1890 old Fort Laramie was abandoned as a Military Post and the site
with the buildings passed into private hands. Several years later the railroad
came and pass [ rest missing ]